Kids Publish!

Spotlighting Creative Ideas for a Presentation

Kids publish! Why? How? Publication is an important step because it solidifies kids' identities as writers. Here are creative ideas for a presentation for each of your students.

Publishing, or presentation, is the visual polish writers give to their text. When kids publish their work, it gives them great pride! Think of it this way: your students are royal dressmakers, preparing their "courtly" stories for the ball!

A Checklist to Help Kids Publish

Model and teach your children to check for the following, as they prepare final copies of their work:

carefully formed letters

neat and legible handwriting

margins that frame the text and illustrations

sentences that stay on the lines

thoughtfully designed and carefully drawn illustrations

smudges kept to a minimum on handwritten copies

appropriate, simple fonts if word processed

Your students are writers. As such, all writers deserve a payoff for the hard work of learning to write well. Encouraging them to share their work publicly is one way to tell them, "You did it! You are a writer! Your voice on the page is important!" Exposing beautifully presented work to a real audience gives them the best rush!

To assist you in helping your kids publish their work, here are a few quick ideas for getting started:

Make books with your children! Have examples, patterns, and templates available for students to follow.

As you discover visually appealing picture books, study them with your class, for inspiration to write with creativity, beauty, and purpose.

Display your students' work throughout the room, in hallways, and around the school campus.

Attach photos of a student to his or her stories, making a visual connection between the writer and the work.

And here's one of my favorites! Have your children keep writers' notebooks throughout the academic year. At the close of the year, collect the notebooks, giftwrap them over the vacation, and return them to students at the beginning of the next school year. After a long vacation and then reading the previous year's work, kids will be excited to dive back into writing!

Need more ideas to help your kids publish? Visit any of these pages about literature-based writing topics for a treasury of writing and presentation suggestions.